DILLARD'S TO TAKE OVER BELK SPACE IN NN MALL

Dillard's Inc. is taking over Belk's Hampton Roads stores in a deal that will change Patrick Henry Mall's lineup of anchors for the second time in a year and a half.

Dillard's will swap seven of its stores in Florida and South Carolina for nine of Belk's, including three in South Hampton Roads and the one in Newport News.

The Patrick Henry Belk will convert into a second Dillard's at the mall - creating a setup much like the department store chain has at Coliseum Mall in Hampton. The first Dillard's at Patrick Henry opened in March after it took over Proffitt's Virginia stores last year.

Dillard's has said all along that the old Proffitt's, at 65,000 square feet, was too small for its needs. Plans were afoot to add on. "We wanted to expand, but it was awkward in that space," said Dick Vasey, a Dillard's vice president and district manager of its Virginia stores. "Now we won't have to."

Vasey considers it a plus that a 35,000-square-foot expansion at the Belk store is already under way. "That's a real extra for us," he said. "It's beautiful and new. A real luxury."

The women's, cosmetics, accessories and intimate apparel departments at Dillard's will move into the Belk space. The men's and children's departments will stay put in the current store, which then will have room for a home department - a Dillard's standard that had been sacrificed because of space.

Dillard's calls the two-store floor plan "a double-header." Vasey said the arrangement at Coliseum Mall - which Dillard's inherited from Proffitt's - has been "very successful."

Employees of the Patrick Henry Belk will keep their jobs, Vasey said. "We need all the good people we can get. We hope they'll stay on and work for Dillard's."

The transformation from Belk to Dillard's will occur in four to six weeks. Vasey expects the changeover to be accomplished with little business interruption. "We may have to close for a night or two, but that's about it. We can do these things pretty fast."

The Dillard's/Belk swap stems from Dillard's pending $3.14 billion purchase of Mercantile Stores, a 103-store chain based in Fairfield, Ohio. Almost half the Mercantiles are in the same markets as Dillard's, so Dillard's wants to shed some - something the swap with Belk will help achieve.

Eight of the Belks being traded are in Virginia, the other in Tennessee.

In addition to the Patrick Henry store, the Belks at Lynnhaven Mall in Virginia Beach and at Chesapeake Square and Greenbrier Mall in Chesapeake will become Dillard's. Since Chesapeake and Greenbrier already have a Dillard's, those malls will get the same "double-header" treatment as Patrick Henry. Lynnhaven will get its first Dillard's.